Christmas 2008

Where we got my boyhood bathroom from.

On Christmas Eve I woke up at 8:30 like a good boy but went back to sleep. My mom's friend from church came by and visited briefly with her, my sister and myself. She brought cookies and peanut butter sticks. Another sister came later in the afternoon. I cleaned the house, emptied both litter pans, watched part of “Thunderball” and went by the computer store and presented everyone with Reese’s Cup candy canes. I went to Logan’s in Warner Robins.


After Logan’s I went to Kroger to get ice and Diet Cokes. I got home and looked at the old Christmas Sears/Wards/Penneys/etc catalogs I downloaded online. I felt a little nostalgic and a little sad. One catalog, from 1958, had a bathroom ensemble similar to ours. We put our bathroom in when my youngest sister could barely talk. That puts it at 1957 or 8. I loved the toy sections and the Eighties fashions.
I still feel a little lonely when thinking of the past.

It doesn’t hurt as bad as it did last year (Dad died that summer). At least I didn’t listen to the sad old Christmas record I listened to last year. Sometimes Perry Como, ripped from an LP, sounds very terrible. I helped get dinner ready and made the Texas sheet cake. The cake came from a box but the icing was from a recipe on the Nestle package. It calls for 2/3 cup of cocoa, a stick of margarine, three cups of powdered sugar, six tablespoons of milk, and a teaspoon of vanilla. I dislike using electric mixers because of the cleanup but in the case of icing there is no other option.

My aunt and some of my cousins came. We had barbecue from the town's favorite joint, baked beans, potato salad, chips, and tea. I also made some grapefruit/lemon/pineapple punch but nobody but I drank it. One cousin lives on my grandmother’s old place and told us about the goings on with his neighbors. His kid is going to school to learn web design.

It was the highlight of last year’s Christmas to have them over. I gave my aunt a gift certificate for Wal-Mart. My cousins gave me chocolates, my aunt gave me a hand-cranked flashlight, and someone gave me an outdoor clear acrylic digital thermometer.

I went to bed because after years of life I found that Santa Claus comes at 12AM and nobody who is awake will receive gifts. Not that this is founded in fact but it seems to be a sort of tradition I developed. I had to wake up at 1AM to wrap gifts. Sleep came at 3AM.

I got up at 11:30. My sister and her kid and grandchild came. For lunch we had Honey Baked Ham and green beans, potato salad, and cranberry sauce. Everyone but me had broccoli casserole. We opened presents I received a set of blank DVD’s, an ashtray, and a Jeff Foxworthy calendar. One sister gave me a long-sleeved tee shirt. Another gave me a metal flask (to heat water, not for liquor!) and a sheet set for the new bed. My niece gave me an address book. Mom gave me two videos- a “Why We Fight” video (mostly antiwar; not Frank Capra!) and “The Party” with Peter Sellers. An uncle came later and gave me a wireless thermometer.

We had barbecue for dinner and I worked with my wireless thermometer. It is off by three degrees on the transmitter and it takes some working with to get set up. I looked at more old catalogs and washed clothes. Before midnight struck I listened to The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrappings” which was a new-wave song from 1981. I could swear I heard it sometime during the Eighties but could be imagining things.

I hate that Christmas is over with. The days seem so lonely. I make plans for things in my life to get better and they never do. I don’t like some things I do or how I let too many things happen when they shouldn’t. I guess I get the feeling that I don’t have control over my life. I feel I have too much room for improvement. But Wednesday morning I listened to a rendition of “It’s A Wonderful Life” on the local talk station. It made me think of how much difference I could very well have made in people’s lives. Maybe I am wrong about myself. Maybe I am not as much of a detriment, not as much of a jerk, not as much of an idiot. The boss at my shop wrote on my Christmas card that he “couldn’t have done it without (me)”.